The Decline of Christianity in the UK

All praise be to Allah and peace and blessings be upon his messenger Muhammad.

In wake of the Census statistics published this week one may rightly expect the Christian community to be showing signs of apprehensiveness and bother when reflecting on the dramatic decrease to their numbers in the UK. The latest census revealed that the number of Christians in the UK dropped by a massive 4 million people to now only form 59% of the population (33.2 million). In the previous census of 2001, the Christian segment of Britons constituted a more dominant and favourable 72% of the population (37.3 million). In a previous article I quoted the justification provided by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales where its spokesperson said, “While this is a challenge, the fact that six out of 10 people in England and Wales self-identify as Christians is not discouraging. Christianity is no longer a religion of culture but a religion of decision and commitment. People are making a positive choice in self-identifying as Christians.”[1] One may view the spokespersons outlook as defensive and unrealistic to say the least. Instead of accepting the current trend amongst their community it seems that many bishops and community leaders prefer to remain in a state of denial, which is a position that Dr Leon Moosavi, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool and expert on Muslims in Britain, chose not to adopt. In stark contrast to the views of Bishops he explains in his article (on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk), “These conversions are triggered by a combination of increasing missionary activity by Muslims but also by a seemingly widened disaffection with Christianity. It comes as no surprise then that while the number of Muslims is rising; the number of Christians is declining. Quite simply, some Christians are converting to Islam”.

Another attempt to provide an attractive explanation was given by Nick Spencer, research director at think-tank Theos. He said, “The census measures religious identification, not beliefs or practice. It’s about what people call themselves and which group they wish to identify with.” He added, “These figures show that we have a plural religious landscape but that doesn’t mean we’re atheists. Digging deeper, we see that even those who say they have no religion often have a variety of spiritual beliefs but they don’t want to associate these to religious institutions.”[2] Robert Booth, a reporter from the Guardian suggested, “Christians could be in a minority in England and Wales by 2018, according to analysis of the latest census.”[3]

In a follow up post-Census research conducted by the British Humanists Association (BHA) to verify the integrity of the Census results, we find exposed an increasingly desperate situation faced by the Church today. Those groups who do not believe in God nor associate themselves with any particular religion have expressed their doubt over the official results published by the 2012 Census. They are adamantly claiming the wording of the questions used caused confusion and thus giving rise to inaccurate results. For example, we find in the results of the BHA’s follow up research, published one week after the official census that 65% of ‘Census Christians’ said they were not religious, only 6% of ‘Census Christians’ had attended a church in the last week, and only 48% of ‘Census Christians’ believed Jesus was a real person who was the son of god, died, and came back to life. Among their other findings that support their claim over the misleading Census figures in relation to the number of Christians in the UK, are that only 30% of ‘Census Christians’ claimed to have strong religious beliefs whilst a massive 60% of ‘Census Christians’ had not even read the Bible from choice in the last year. More astoundingly the BHA found that the majority of those who ticked the ‘Christian’ box were not actually Christian nor attended the Church. Their profound results showed that only 28% of ‘Census Christians’ said that it was due to their belief in the teachings of Christianity which encouraged them to tick the ‘Christian’ box whilst the remaining overwhelming majority (72%) opted for the ‘Christian’ box simply because they were christened and from them 38% also added that it was due to their parents identifying themselves as Christians.[4]

“Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allah] judged by it for the Jews, as did the rabbis and scholars by that with which they were entrusted of the Scripture of Allah, and they were witnesses thereto. So do not fear the people but fear Me, and do not exchange My verses for a small price. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the disbelievers… And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.”[6]

We should not make the same errors as the Jews and Christians who mistakenly allowed politicians and clerics to hijack their religion. We as Muslims must apply the religion of Allah completely and we must not and cannot dictate what Allah likes and what He does not like according to our own whims and desires. It would be erroneous to do exactly this   and then claim it is merely a new interpretation of Allah’s religion. It was narrated from ‘A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Whoever pleases Allah by angering the people, Allah will be sufficient for him. But whoever angers Allah by pleasing the people, Allah will leave him to the people.”[7] Altering the implementation of this great and perfect religion would thus produce a failing system, unappealing to the people.